hi I’m Rebecca and from 2015 to 16 I
spent a year cycling on my own from
London
to Tehran going through as many Middle
Eastern countries as I could on the way
and the first thing that people tend to
ask me when I tell them that I did this
is why why would you do such a thing and
well I was in my early 30s when I
decided that I wanted to do this and I
had basically run out of ways to really
annoy my mother and for anyone who might
be in a similar situation it really is a
tremendously effective way of doing that
and she actually sent me an email
shortly before I left which I’m not
going to go through the whole of today
because we’ve only got about 20 minutes
but I’m just gonna run through a few of
the key words and phrases which I think
sum up the gist of her sentiments and
they were devastated dangerous awful
hostile foolish reckless to the real
email dangerous again juvenile Oh
terrible worried risking life and limb
robbed and raped and family
disintegrating she concluded her email I
think I shall have to hit the bottle or
go mad I start with the first option I
wasn’t the only one who had concerns
about the trip some of my friends were
worried about it as well one of my best
friend said he thought I would probably
die and had given the odds at about 6040
a man in the pub was slightly less
optimistic he called me naive idiots who
would end up decapitated in a ditch at
best always the most positive responses
that I received isn’t all that
surprising when you think about the
image of the Middle East that we have in
the West and that is that it’s full of
things like this this and this and this
so it’s really the three B’s bombs
burkas and bigots and this is not just
my opinion there have been many studies
to show how the image of the Middle East
has been skewed through Western media
coverage the University of Cardiff
School of Journalism
for example looked at about a thousand
articles about Muslims between 2000 and
2008 and found that the most common
adjectives used were radical fanatical
fundamentalist and extremist and that
references to radical Muslims
outnumbered those to moderate ones by
quite staggering seventeen to one and
and the thing is about all of this
coverage is there’s just so much of it
because negative stories about Muslims
in the Western media are not hard to
find and in fact the Muslim Council of
Britain has been documenting these
stories for the
last few years and it hasn’t just been
documenting ones that are a little bit
skewed it’s been looking at ones that
are fundamentally inaccurate and that it
has successfully challenged through the
independent press standards organization
and it found dozens of these over the
last few years to give you one example
in the Sun and various tabloid they had
the headline gone man
screaming Allahu Akbar opens fire in
Spanish supermarket while wearing
suicide vest filled with gasoline and
gunpowder now as it turned out the
perpetrator was actually a Spaniard
called Stefan who was shouting in
Spanish and carrying a cigar and a
banana they did run some Corrections but
they were fairly small and easily
miscible and the US media is not much
better again there have been many many
studies about this in the u.s. showing
how coverage has been skewed one was
done by academics at the University of
Arkansas and Illinois but found of all
the television broadcasts that they
looked at 81% had portrayed Muslims as
terrorists and the issue with this when
this is all you’re hearing about about
Muslims in the Islamic world all the
time that it cannot help but have an
impact no matter how open-minded you
think you might be and you can see this
through some of the statistics got some
here 52 percent of Brits see Syrian and
Iraqi refugees as a major threat 48% of
Americans agree with Trump’s Muslim ban
76 percent of Americans say they
wouldn’t consider traveling to the Arab
world because they think it’s too
dangerous
although the last one is probably a good
thing cuz it turns out 81 percent of
Americans have no idea where the Arab
world
chilli is so goodness knows where they
might end up the price I really want to
make about this is just how
extraordinarily disproportionate the
level of fear is when you compare it to
the level of risk to look at again a few
more statistics in America actually you
know you’re six hundred and thirteen
times more likely to be killed by
asteroid and you are by a refugee and
you’re three times more likely to be
killed by a cow and I know cars are
getting a little bit of a bad rap the US
should look into some sort of an TiVo
phone security measures I don’t know but
when you think about it you know how
much time and energy should go into
trying to tackle a disease for example
that only killed one in forty six
million people probably not very much so
this is really a long way of coming
around to the second reason for my trip
which was just to find out about the
reality of the Middle East and by that I
meant the real people the 99.9% of
people who live there not the North
Point 1% that we hear about every day in
the media and within that naught point
1% I include the dictators and the the
despots who are often seen as a kind of
shorthand for the identity of their
country but often there’s a very strong
disconnect between them and the people
that they are leading and I’m not saying
that we don’t talk about these people
I’m not saying that they’re not
newsworthy of course they are I’m just
saying that when that is all you ever
hear about these people become the norm
and not the exception
and the Middle East’s and indeed the
world as a whole seems to be a much more
so I set off with Maude my bicycle in
July 2015 and the idea was to go through
as many Islamic countries as I could on
my way to Iran so I went through Turkey
Lebanon Jordan Egypt Sudan Oman UAE Iran
and the closer I got to the edge of
Europe I have to say the more nervous
and anxious and apprehensive I I really
was and so I did take a few precautions
to try and steady my nerve and one of
the main things I did was actually I was
carrying a bottle of home brewed Bosnian
rocky with me provided by these two
lovely gentlemen for anyone that hasn’t
had it it is incredible stuff it’s about
a hundred and fifty percent tastes like
pure gasoline and has this wonderful
rare quality of getting you instantly
wasted just by thinking about it so I
had a few shots of this as I was going
through Europe and approaching the
border and as I went across the border
from Bulgaria to Turkey a sort of
stealing my nerves and I was really
worried because I’ve been told about ok
terrorism there been a lot of terrorist
attacks in Turkey either so I should
look out for the jihadists and for the
men and the criminals and the police and
so I was looking out for all of these
things I went across and the first
person I met was actually this guy and
and it’s possible that he was a
terrorist or a criminal madi well I
don’t know because all he did was would
stop pull over and hand me a Satsuma so
it was great and that was really the
full extent of our relationship so it’s
very hard to know like if he was any of
those things but then he went on his way
but the thing is it turned out that this
was not an isolated incident I was given
many satsumas during my trip across the
Middle East and not just satsumas whole
meals endless cups of tea gifts places
to stay these constant acts of kindness
all the time every day and I know it’s a
terrible cliche to talk about
the kindness that you receive as a
traveler but it really is a cliche
because it’s true and it’s especially
true I think when you’re on a bicycle
and you’re seen as harmless and
unthreatening and possibly in need of
some kind of psychological help because
why on earth are you on a bicycle and
it’s also particularly true in the
Middle East where there’s a very strong
community culture and family culture and
people are used to looking after one
another and really I could not have felt
more safe and just to give a few
examples so in Lebanon I got caught in
the biggest storm in the year but one of
many punches that I got during the trip
and I was picked up by these two
gentlemen it took me 20 kilometers out
of their way to the nearest town and I
always look at this image and I always
think that they look like a sort of
textbook murderers that you read about
in school when they say do not get in a
car with these men’s lovely really
lovely guys and also gave me a Satsuma
actually I always really indebted to
them in Egypt I met just some wonderful
friendly happy people I know you tip
shion’s get a bad rap because they can
be very aggressive in some of the
tourist areas trying to get tourists in
to see the pyramids and the tombs and so
forth but outside these areas actually
they really are incredibly hospitable
and welcoming people so I only have good
things to say about them and the camels
as well particularly friendly in Iran
the hospitality went up a whole new
level again I was stopped so frequently
when I was on my bicycle by people in
the street just to give me wonderful
utterly impractical food to carry on my
bike no loaves of bread watermelons bags
of cucumbers roasted red I just had to
instantly discard which was really
disappointing but you know really
wonderful friendly impulse on their side
and Iran was a fascinating place and I
really feel like we can learn a lot from
them in terms of being able to
distinguish between people on the one
hand and politics on the other
because they really were very taken I
think with British culture and language
and people very suspicious on the other
hand of the British governments and for
anyone who knows a little bit a little
bit about the the history we’ll know
that that’s a very understandable stance
to take and they actually a lot of them
there think that the Brits were behind
the 1979 Islamist Revolution and that if
you lifted up the Ayatollah Khomeini’s
beard you’d find made in England written
underneath this is one of many jokes
that they had it’s really a joke so I
don’t want to generalize too much about
the hospitality and every and the
culture of the Middle East because
obviously every country is very
different and I can only talk about the
places that I went through but what I
can say is that everywhere that I went I
was met with kindness no hint of
hostility no hint of judgment and this
is very interesting to me because here I
was this Western woman unmarried
agnostic on a bicycle I didn’t hide any
of that from anyone I really there was
no hostility and no obvious judgments
just curiosity really and the other
point
yeah I’d really like to stress is that I
talk to a lot of people I know about the
situation with Isis and jihadists and I
never ever ever got any hints from
anyone that they had any support or
sympathy for these groups whatsoever and
in fact the impression I got again only
talking about the areas that I went
through but the impression I got was
that they were more frustrated and
angrier about the situation because they
felt that they were being held complicit
for the actions of these people and
actually a lot of studies support this
Pew Research Center has done several
polls on this subject and there’s one
particularly interesting one that I
think it did
in America and it basically asked people
in the US whether they think targeting
and killing civilians can ever be
justified to further political social or
religious causes and in response 59% of
the general public said that they
thought it can never be justified
compared to 76% of us Muslims
that’s a 17 percent gap and so I just
think you know when people ask whether
there is some kind of intrinsic
connection between Islam and violence I
really think that this kind of data
shows absolutely not now am i saying
that there are no social problems in the
Middle East at all and that all the
problems are political no of course not
men is one issue I get asked about a lot
this is clearly not a problem that is
confined to the Middle East as we have
seen in recent months in the West isn’t
worse in the Middle East in some areas
possibly I did find particularly in
Jordan Egypt in Iran that there was
sexism and a sense of entitlement that
seemed to run very deep indeed and
certainly in more rural and conservative
areas I had a particular problem in
Jordan when I was I got another puncture
and I was picked up by a truck driver
who tried to kiss me and touch me and I
got out my fake wedding ring try and put
him off and then I got out my fake
children when that didn’t work my
brother’s children that didn’t work so
then I got out my very unfaith knife
which I just sort of gently wafted near
he was a big carriage like like many men
in this situation and let me out and I
don’t mean to make light of the
situation it is very serious and it
infuriated me beyond words and I know
that I was treated better than a local
woman would have been in my situation as
well but should it stop women from
traveling on their own in the Middle
East or anywhere and I really think for
me the resounding answer is no because
firstly I think the the problem is
overblown I think that the vast majority
of men that I met were polite and
respectful those that were not were not
generally malicious or aggressive but
opportunistic seeing what they could get
away with and even though I know that
aggressive men do exist I really do
think it is a very very small minority
and I think that if there is a risk is
it for women to sacrifice their freedom
just because a few random men can’t keep
it in their pants and I really think not
and I do think that travel for women is
not just the consequence of equality but
also a driver of it at the same time and
that the more women go out and travel
alone the more it will be normalized
accepted and respected and for me it was
very saddening when I was traveling
through the Middle East that’s a lot of
the women that I met didn’t even have as
many rights or freedoms as this woman
did a hundred and twenty four years ago
when she was the first woman to cycle
around the world her name is Annie
Londonderry and she did it with three
children who she left at home with just
a revolver and a change of clothes so
really he very impressive indeed she was
actually a massive cheat she barely
cycled any of it she did most of it by
boats and then she came back and she
just lied through her teeth it was
incredible at PR but parking that
it was still really a phenomenal
achievement for the time so so wonderful
that she did that and sad very sad that
that there are still women in the world
who are unable to do what she did over a
century ago but what I don’t want to do
is paint the Middle East as this region
of very weak voiceless and defenseless
women who are not standing up for
themselves that really was not my
impression at all and actually a lot of
women there are starting to cycle now in
some of the big cities so this is a
cycle team in Cairo where a third of the
team are women and there were more women
cycling in Beirut and Tehran
Dubai and elsewhere and many women who
were were incredibly impressive
incredibly inspirational and very strong
and there I could talk for days about
the women that I met who really inspired
me and who were really pushing the
boundaries and pushing back to assert
their rights just to give you a few
examples
this woman was from the syrian town of
Madaya
and she with a group of women had
managed to negotiate a ceasefire with
armed groups in a way that the men had
failed ants and many occasions and they
did it whilst they were literally
starving to death there a kilogram of
rice at that time cost a hundred dollars
a pint of milk about the same and then
after which they were able to escape
with their families
there was a group of women in suits in
Egypt who I stayed with and they were
medical students they had no interest in
babies or marriage or men or anything
like that at all they wanted to join
medicines on frontiere and go and do
incredible things around the world this
women nasrin Sotoudeh is a human rights
lawyer in Tehran and she was very
impressive spent several years
ever in prison and still came out
fighting for human rights fighting for
justice and there aren’t that many
people who are doing that in Iran today
there was this group of ladies in Cairo
in Egypt who ran an anti torture NGO and
their NGO had been raided and shut down
by security forces and they came out
fighting they came out leveling very
very strong accusations against the
senior members in the military that went
right up to al Sisi they were utterly
courageous and thought nothing you know
of their own safety or freedom and they
were not an isolated case in Egypt and
across the Middle East as a whole there
was an unprecedented crackdown on civil
society as I was cycling through and
this for me was really perhaps the most
disheartening thing about the trip was
this level of severe political
repression that was going on and is
still going on today in these countries
and I just think it’s important to
remember that it is the people in the
Middle East who are the victims of this
repression and not the perpetrators and
who are having to make these very very
difficult decisions about security on
the one hand and freedom on the other
decisions that are really being
exploited by the dictators who lead
these countries just to conclude I would
really love to encourage those of you
who haven’t been to the Middle East is
just try and get out there and see it
for yourself and meet the people there
for yourself so I’ve just finished with
a few pictures of the landscape because
it’s absolutely stunning it’s really
there’s so many beautiful areas and the
thing is about it is that because so
many people are worried about the
security implications of going out there
you will get most of these places all to
yourself which makes it extra special
and I’ve just
shoehorned this last picture inks it’s
my favorite picture and I couldn’t get
it into the rest of the talk so I’ve
just left you with with this endearing
face to try and encourage you so if you
can do try and get out to the Middle
East and if you can even cycle it
because it is a tremendous way of seeing
a place of seeing the reality of a place
the the everyday lives of the people who
live there and I promise if you do that
your mother will forgive you eventually thank you
spent a year cycling on my own from
London
to Tehran going through as many Middle
Eastern countries as I could on the way
and the first thing that people tend to
ask me when I tell them that I did this
is why why would you do such a thing and
well I was in my early 30s when I
decided that I wanted to do this and I
had basically run out of ways to really
annoy my mother and for anyone who might
be in a similar situation it really is a
tremendously effective way of doing that
and she actually sent me an email
shortly before I left which I’m not
going to go through the whole of today
because we’ve only got about 20 minutes
but I’m just gonna run through a few of
the key words and phrases which I think
sum up the gist of her sentiments and
they were devastated dangerous awful
hostile foolish reckless to the real
email dangerous again juvenile Oh
terrible worried risking life and limb
robbed and raped and family
disintegrating she concluded her email I
think I shall have to hit the bottle or
go mad I start with the first option I
wasn’t the only one who had concerns
about the trip some of my friends were
worried about it as well one of my best
friend said he thought I would probably
die and had given the odds at about 6040
a man in the pub was slightly less
optimistic he called me naive idiots who
would end up decapitated in a ditch at
best always the most positive responses
that I received isn’t all that
surprising when you think about the
image of the Middle East that we have in
the West and that is that it’s full of
things like this this and this and this
so it’s really the three B’s bombs
burkas and bigots and this is not just
my opinion there have been many studies
to show how the image of the Middle East
has been skewed through Western media
coverage the University of Cardiff
School of Journalism
for example looked at about a thousand
articles about Muslims between 2000 and
2008 and found that the most common
adjectives used were radical fanatical
fundamentalist and extremist and that
references to radical Muslims
outnumbered those to moderate ones by
quite staggering seventeen to one and
and the thing is about all of this
coverage is there’s just so much of it
because negative stories about Muslims
in the Western media are not hard to
find and in fact the Muslim Council of
Britain has been documenting these
stories for the
last few years and it hasn’t just been
documenting ones that are a little bit
skewed it’s been looking at ones that
are fundamentally inaccurate and that it
has successfully challenged through the
independent press standards organization
and it found dozens of these over the
last few years to give you one example
in the Sun and various tabloid they had
the headline gone man
screaming Allahu Akbar opens fire in
Spanish supermarket while wearing
suicide vest filled with gasoline and
gunpowder now as it turned out the
perpetrator was actually a Spaniard
called Stefan who was shouting in
Spanish and carrying a cigar and a
banana they did run some Corrections but
they were fairly small and easily
miscible and the US media is not much
better again there have been many many
studies about this in the u.s. showing
how coverage has been skewed one was
done by academics at the University of
Arkansas and Illinois but found of all
the television broadcasts that they
looked at 81% had portrayed Muslims as
terrorists and the issue with this when
this is all you’re hearing about about
Muslims in the Islamic world all the
time that it cannot help but have an
impact no matter how open-minded you
think you might be and you can see this
through some of the statistics got some
here 52 percent of Brits see Syrian and
Iraqi refugees as a major threat 48% of
Americans agree with Trump’s Muslim ban
76 percent of Americans say they
wouldn’t consider traveling to the Arab
world because they think it’s too
dangerous
although the last one is probably a good
thing cuz it turns out 81 percent of
Americans have no idea where the Arab
world
chilli is so goodness knows where they
might end up the price I really want to
make about this is just how
extraordinarily disproportionate the
level of fear is when you compare it to
the level of risk to look at again a few
more statistics in America actually you
know you’re six hundred and thirteen
times more likely to be killed by
asteroid and you are by a refugee and
you’re three times more likely to be
killed by a cow and I know cars are
getting a little bit of a bad rap the US
should look into some sort of an TiVo
phone security measures I don’t know but
when you think about it you know how
much time and energy should go into
trying to tackle a disease for example
that only killed one in forty six
million people probably not very much so
this is really a long way of coming
around to the second reason for my trip
which was just to find out about the
reality of the Middle East and by that I
meant the real people the 99.9% of
people who live there not the North
Point 1% that we hear about every day in
the media and within that naught point
1% I include the dictators and the the
despots who are often seen as a kind of
shorthand for the identity of their
country but often there’s a very strong
disconnect between them and the people
that they are leading and I’m not saying
that we don’t talk about these people
I’m not saying that they’re not
newsworthy of course they are I’m just
saying that when that is all you ever
hear about these people become the norm
and not the exception
and the Middle East’s and indeed the
world as a whole seems to be a much more
so I set off with Maude my bicycle in
July 2015 and the idea was to go through
as many Islamic countries as I could on
my way to Iran so I went through Turkey
Lebanon Jordan Egypt Sudan Oman UAE Iran
and the closer I got to the edge of
Europe I have to say the more nervous
and anxious and apprehensive I I really
was and so I did take a few precautions
to try and steady my nerve and one of
the main things I did was actually I was
carrying a bottle of home brewed Bosnian
rocky with me provided by these two
lovely gentlemen for anyone that hasn’t
had it it is incredible stuff it’s about
a hundred and fifty percent tastes like
pure gasoline and has this wonderful
rare quality of getting you instantly
wasted just by thinking about it so I
had a few shots of this as I was going
through Europe and approaching the
border and as I went across the border
from Bulgaria to Turkey a sort of
stealing my nerves and I was really
worried because I’ve been told about ok
terrorism there been a lot of terrorist
attacks in Turkey either so I should
look out for the jihadists and for the
men and the criminals and the police and
so I was looking out for all of these
things I went across and the first
person I met was actually this guy and
and it’s possible that he was a
terrorist or a criminal madi well I
don’t know because all he did was would
stop pull over and hand me a Satsuma so
it was great and that was really the
full extent of our relationship so it’s
very hard to know like if he was any of
those things but then he went on his way
but the thing is it turned out that this
was not an isolated incident I was given
many satsumas during my trip across the
Middle East and not just satsumas whole
meals endless cups of tea gifts places
to stay these constant acts of kindness
all the time every day and I know it’s a
terrible cliche to talk about
the kindness that you receive as a
traveler but it really is a cliche
because it’s true and it’s especially
true I think when you’re on a bicycle
and you’re seen as harmless and
unthreatening and possibly in need of
some kind of psychological help because
why on earth are you on a bicycle and
it’s also particularly true in the
Middle East where there’s a very strong
community culture and family culture and
people are used to looking after one
another and really I could not have felt
more safe and just to give a few
examples so in Lebanon I got caught in
the biggest storm in the year but one of
many punches that I got during the trip
and I was picked up by these two
gentlemen it took me 20 kilometers out
of their way to the nearest town and I
always look at this image and I always
think that they look like a sort of
textbook murderers that you read about
in school when they say do not get in a
car with these men’s lovely really
lovely guys and also gave me a Satsuma
actually I always really indebted to
them in Egypt I met just some wonderful
friendly happy people I know you tip
shion’s get a bad rap because they can
be very aggressive in some of the
tourist areas trying to get tourists in
to see the pyramids and the tombs and so
forth but outside these areas actually
they really are incredibly hospitable
and welcoming people so I only have good
things to say about them and the camels
as well particularly friendly in Iran
the hospitality went up a whole new
level again I was stopped so frequently
when I was on my bicycle by people in
the street just to give me wonderful
utterly impractical food to carry on my
bike no loaves of bread watermelons bags
of cucumbers roasted red I just had to
instantly discard which was really
disappointing but you know really
wonderful friendly impulse on their side
and Iran was a fascinating place and I
really feel like we can learn a lot from
them in terms of being able to
distinguish between people on the one
hand and politics on the other
because they really were very taken I
think with British culture and language
and people very suspicious on the other
hand of the British governments and for
anyone who knows a little bit a little
bit about the the history we’ll know
that that’s a very understandable stance
to take and they actually a lot of them
there think that the Brits were behind
the 1979 Islamist Revolution and that if
you lifted up the Ayatollah Khomeini’s
beard you’d find made in England written
underneath this is one of many jokes
that they had it’s really a joke so I
don’t want to generalize too much about
the hospitality and every and the
culture of the Middle East because
obviously every country is very
different and I can only talk about the
places that I went through but what I
can say is that everywhere that I went I
was met with kindness no hint of
hostility no hint of judgment and this
is very interesting to me because here I
was this Western woman unmarried
agnostic on a bicycle I didn’t hide any
of that from anyone I really there was
no hostility and no obvious judgments
just curiosity really and the other
point
yeah I’d really like to stress is that I
talk to a lot of people I know about the
situation with Isis and jihadists and I
never ever ever got any hints from
anyone that they had any support or
sympathy for these groups whatsoever and
in fact the impression I got again only
talking about the areas that I went
through but the impression I got was
that they were more frustrated and
angrier about the situation because they
felt that they were being held complicit
for the actions of these people and
actually a lot of studies support this
Pew Research Center has done several
polls on this subject and there’s one
particularly interesting one that I
think it did
in America and it basically asked people
in the US whether they think targeting
and killing civilians can ever be
justified to further political social or
religious causes and in response 59% of
the general public said that they
thought it can never be justified
compared to 76% of us Muslims
that’s a 17 percent gap and so I just
think you know when people ask whether
there is some kind of intrinsic
connection between Islam and violence I
really think that this kind of data
shows absolutely not now am i saying
that there are no social problems in the
Middle East at all and that all the
problems are political no of course not
men is one issue I get asked about a lot
this is clearly not a problem that is
confined to the Middle East as we have
seen in recent months in the West isn’t
worse in the Middle East in some areas
possibly I did find particularly in
Jordan Egypt in Iran that there was
sexism and a sense of entitlement that
seemed to run very deep indeed and
certainly in more rural and conservative
areas I had a particular problem in
Jordan when I was I got another puncture
and I was picked up by a truck driver
who tried to kiss me and touch me and I
got out my fake wedding ring try and put
him off and then I got out my fake
children when that didn’t work my
brother’s children that didn’t work so
then I got out my very unfaith knife
which I just sort of gently wafted near
he was a big carriage like like many men
in this situation and let me out and I
don’t mean to make light of the
situation it is very serious and it
infuriated me beyond words and I know
that I was treated better than a local
woman would have been in my situation as
well but should it stop women from
traveling on their own in the Middle
East or anywhere and I really think for
me the resounding answer is no because
firstly I think the the problem is
overblown I think that the vast majority
of men that I met were polite and
respectful those that were not were not
generally malicious or aggressive but
opportunistic seeing what they could get
away with and even though I know that
aggressive men do exist I really do
think it is a very very small minority
and I think that if there is a risk is
it for women to sacrifice their freedom
just because a few random men can’t keep
it in their pants and I really think not
and I do think that travel for women is
not just the consequence of equality but
also a driver of it at the same time and
that the more women go out and travel
alone the more it will be normalized
accepted and respected and for me it was
very saddening when I was traveling
through the Middle East that’s a lot of
the women that I met didn’t even have as
many rights or freedoms as this woman
did a hundred and twenty four years ago
when she was the first woman to cycle
around the world her name is Annie
Londonderry and she did it with three
children who she left at home with just
a revolver and a change of clothes so
really he very impressive indeed she was
actually a massive cheat she barely
cycled any of it she did most of it by
boats and then she came back and she
just lied through her teeth it was
incredible at PR but parking that
it was still really a phenomenal
achievement for the time so so wonderful
that she did that and sad very sad that
that there are still women in the world
who are unable to do what she did over a
century ago but what I don’t want to do
is paint the Middle East as this region
of very weak voiceless and defenseless
women who are not standing up for
themselves that really was not my
impression at all and actually a lot of
women there are starting to cycle now in
some of the big cities so this is a
cycle team in Cairo where a third of the
team are women and there were more women
cycling in Beirut and Tehran
Dubai and elsewhere and many women who
were were incredibly impressive
incredibly inspirational and very strong
and there I could talk for days about
the women that I met who really inspired
me and who were really pushing the
boundaries and pushing back to assert
their rights just to give you a few
examples
this woman was from the syrian town of
Madaya
and she with a group of women had
managed to negotiate a ceasefire with
armed groups in a way that the men had
failed ants and many occasions and they
did it whilst they were literally
starving to death there a kilogram of
rice at that time cost a hundred dollars
a pint of milk about the same and then
after which they were able to escape
with their families
there was a group of women in suits in
Egypt who I stayed with and they were
medical students they had no interest in
babies or marriage or men or anything
like that at all they wanted to join
medicines on frontiere and go and do
incredible things around the world this
women nasrin Sotoudeh is a human rights
lawyer in Tehran and she was very
impressive spent several years
ever in prison and still came out
fighting for human rights fighting for
justice and there aren’t that many
people who are doing that in Iran today
there was this group of ladies in Cairo
in Egypt who ran an anti torture NGO and
their NGO had been raided and shut down
by security forces and they came out
fighting they came out leveling very
very strong accusations against the
senior members in the military that went
right up to al Sisi they were utterly
courageous and thought nothing you know
of their own safety or freedom and they
were not an isolated case in Egypt and
across the Middle East as a whole there
was an unprecedented crackdown on civil
society as I was cycling through and
this for me was really perhaps the most
disheartening thing about the trip was
this level of severe political
repression that was going on and is
still going on today in these countries
and I just think it’s important to
remember that it is the people in the
Middle East who are the victims of this
repression and not the perpetrators and
who are having to make these very very
difficult decisions about security on
the one hand and freedom on the other
decisions that are really being
exploited by the dictators who lead
these countries just to conclude I would
really love to encourage those of you
who haven’t been to the Middle East is
just try and get out there and see it
for yourself and meet the people there
for yourself so I’ve just finished with
a few pictures of the landscape because
it’s absolutely stunning it’s really
there’s so many beautiful areas and the
thing is about it is that because so
many people are worried about the
security implications of going out there
you will get most of these places all to
yourself which makes it extra special
and I’ve just
shoehorned this last picture inks it’s
my favorite picture and I couldn’t get
it into the rest of the talk so I’ve
just left you with with this endearing
face to try and encourage you so if you
can do try and get out to the Middle
East and if you can even cycle it
because it is a tremendous way of seeing
a place of seeing the reality of a place
the the everyday lives of the people who
live there and I promise if you do that
your mother will forgive you eventually thank you
Please follow and like us: